A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for enabling a calling subscriber to invoke the forwarding of a call to a voice mail system for the called subscriber on a call-by-call basis in order to leave a message for the called subscriber without disturbing (ringing) the called subscriber. The associated disadvantage with this "Direct Voice Mail Access" (DVMA) feature is that the called party will lose control over his/her call forwarding to voice mail feature for that particular call. Therefore, in order to overcome this disadvantage, another feature, "Direct Voice Mail Access Blocking" (DVMAB) can be implemented to allow the called subscriber to inhibit direct access to their voice mail by the calling subscriber.